Harry was laughing half-heartedly with his friends as they settled down to a heart meal
for the Welcome Feast at Hogwarts for their sixth year. He watched with some
amusement as the first years got sorted and contributed some small words hear and there
to their conversation. When the food appeared however, Harry's eyes glazed over.

*****Flashback*****

Harry watched in silence from his kneeling position in the corner of the dining room
while the Dursley's ate dinner, holding an animated conversation. All of a sudden his
relatives conversation stopped as Vernon looked in his direction and Harry gulped as he
realized he had been caught with his head up instead of staring at the floor as instructed.

"How dare you!" he grunted in his booming voice, causing Harry to flinch slightly.
"What makes you think you're good enough to look upon us, you freak? You whore of a
boy who calls himself my wife's nephew."

Harry kept silent and stared at the floor resolutely. He knew that if he said anything it
would end up to his disadvantage. He could hear his Uncle getting up, hear Dudley
sniggering loudly in the background, hear his aunt's hushed whisper to "not do anything
too drastic to the boy", then he could hear nothing but a loud ringing in his ears as his
Uncle slammed his head into the wall, knocking him unconcious, without food for the
fifth day.

*****End Flashback*****

"Harry, Harry mate, snap out of it would you?" came Ron Weasley's voice as he shook
Harry out of his reverie. Startled, Harry flinched, blocked his face, and somehow
managed to find himself falling out of his chair. Ron's amused chuckle came after him,
"Got your bearings now mate?"

Harry scrambled back into his chair and tried to laugh it off, but it came out as a tilting
kind of laugh. Enough to suit Ron, but Hermione looked at him with a bit of concern. He
gave her a smile, genuine this time and turned back to his plate. After piling a small
enough food on his plate and tucking in he found his stomach protesting and found
himself playing with the food on his plate.

"Harry," Hermione said sharply, "why aren't you eating? You haven't had that much."
Harry shrugged. "Dudley's still on that diet Hermione, I have to get used to this amount
of food again." The truth was that the Dursley's had fed him a grand total of five times
during the summer, but hell if he was going to tell one of his best friends that. Hermione
gave him a stern look but accepted his answer and carried on the conversation in a
different direction.

"Hey, isn't it great that Professor Lupin's back?"

"Yeah, finally we don't have a DADA teacher who will end up killing us all or teaching
us glamour instead of defense," Harry said, though he was a bit preoccupied with the fact
that Remus hadn't said a word to him since that last time at Kings Cross Station. He
wondered if the werewolf was angry at him about Sirius, and he felt a tear prickle at his
eye for a second the shrugged it off.

"And it'll be nice to have him around won't it Harry, I mean he's the only one left after
Siri...." Hermione cut off suddenly, and glanced at Harry with remorse. Harry dropped
his fork and glared at his face. "I'm sorry Harry...I wasn't thinking."

"It's ok Hermione, I understand." Harry rubbed his eyes tiredly. Hermione looked at him
with tears in her eyes and Ron just sat there not quite sure what to say. The rest of the
meal was spent in an uncomfortable silence.

Dumbledore caught up to Harry as the students headed up to their dormitories for bed.
"Can I have a moment Harry?" Harry nodded, the headmaster probably just wanted to
know how he was dealing with Sirius' death. He wondered faintly if Dumbledore had
noticed how much different he looked this year. His friends had noticed with great
amusement his new height (which was far from tall, but much taller than he had been, he
was now aroudn 5"7 or so) and his hair, which had suddenly become more tameable and
fuller. To his surprise, Dumbledore said nothing about it.

They entered his office with a muttered "Jelly Belly" as the password and Harry was
suddenly met with a shock as he found his Potions Master sitting in one of the chairs with
a sour expression on his face and a glare when he noticed Harry. "Am I in trouble sir?"
asked Harry immediately, causing both of his Professor's to snort and Harry to blush.

"No, no Harry, we brought you here for an entirely different matter."

"Sir, if this is about Sirius then frankly..."

"No, no this isn't about Sirius but if you ever need to talk about it, my door is always
open."

"Thank you sir." Harry took a seat and looked at Dumbledore expectantly.

"Anyway Harry, I bade you here today so that we can discuss an issue that I fear has been
kept hidden from us for a very long time." Dumbledore glanced at Snape who sneered
and turned to stare at the window, the headmaster sighed dramatically and gestured
towards Harry's professor.

"As Severus obviously isn't willing to share his part, I'll tell you what I know. Harry- I'm
going to tell you this very plainly and simply. You deserve to know this, but understand
that this isn't something that we've been keeping from you. We simply didn't know. And I
don't want you to take this out on us because we were completely unaware of it." At this
he glanced at Severus once more, but the Professor seemed to be bent on not speaking for
he continued to stare out the window like a petulant child.

"Harry, Remus Lupin found a journal this summer. It contained some of your mothers
writing, some of her memories. And on the final page, there was a letter to you."
Dumbledore took out a crumpled letter from inside of his pocket. "I'm going to let you
read this letter, but before you do I'm going to sum it up for you to soften the shock.
Harry, Professor Snape is....."

Dumbledore trailed off, he really didn't want to say whatever it was he needed to say. He
couldn't seem to spit out the words. Finally, Snape got frustrated and told him.

"I'm your father."

*******************

Harry stared at the man in shock. *Well that would explain why Remus hasn't said
anything to me* he thought.

"You're my what?" he choked out.

"You're father Potter, and I assure you, I'm no more pleased than you are to find out,"
Snape drawled out. Harry flinched involuntarily at the tone which seemed to pique
Snape's interest.

"Potter, why are you so..."

But Harry cut him off. "How?"

Dumbledore was the one who answered this time. "It's all in the letter Harry. Read it," he
handed Harry the letter. Harry stared at it then took off running, letter in hand, towards
the Gryffindor Tower. Severus started up after him, but Dumbledore held out a hand.
"Give him some time Severus, give him some time."

**************

Harry ran all the way to the Gryffindor common room, which was surprisingly empty
except for Ron and Hermione were awaiting him expectantly. Running past them he
hurried up to his dormitory and unconsciously put up a sound ward. He didn't even hear
Ron when he came up in a huff later, ranting about friends who were indifferent to their
other friends feelings.

Harry handled the letter reverently, and placed it on his bed where he preceded to stare at
it for a good fifteen minutes. In some back space in his mind he knew that if he opened
that letter his world would come crashing down around him and all that he believed in up
to that point would be forfeit. But in the end, his own curiosity got to him, and he opened
it.

My Dearest Son,

I'm not sure you will ever get this letter. I hope you never do, for that will mean that I am
alive to tell you the truth myself. But in this time and place it is unlikely, and I do not
want the truth to go unknown for the extent of your life. It is not fair to you, or the other
person involved.

As I'm writing this I'm not sure what will happen in your life. Right now, you're a baby,
nestled in my arms, asleep and sound, safe. When you read this I will not have known
your past. It's a hard thing for a mother to consider. I do not know if you know James
Potter, my husband. If you do, I hope that you love him as I do. If you do not, I want you
to know that he is a wonderful man and should not be blamed for this.

Harry, whatever you may believe, James Potter is not your father. Your true father is a
man who you may not expect. He and I shared a love that was kept secret from everyone,
even James, even my closest friends. Harry what I am writing you, what I hope to tell
you, is that I had an affair.

A month after James and I married, I fell in love with another man, Severus Snape.
Things went a little to far between us one night, and the next thing I knew, I was
pregnant. At first I thought it was James'. That you were the child of our marriage. Then,
when you were born, I saw those prominent Snape features and realized that it was not
possible. I hid your features with a charm that will last until you are sixteen, then they
will start to wear off. By then I hope I will have told you the truth. If not, then I hope that
somehow this letter gets to you.

Harry, Severus Snape is your father.

With Love,
Your Mother
Lily Evans Potter

Harry closed the letter. And cried.

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